[Jewelry making - Article 00200] - Re: [Orchid] What to do about competition spying?

[Karen Goeller]

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Douglas and Sarah,

    Your work IS copyright under US law from the time you create it. Or,
    as they say at the US Copyright website
    (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html): "Copyright protection
    subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The
    copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property
    of the author who created the work. " 

    I understand your desire to "play it cool," being a very
    non-confrontational person myself. However, it's also important to
    know your rights and be comfortable asserting them. 

    If you wish to play it cool, just keep a very close eye on them,
    their stock, and their employees. If you see potentially infringing
    designs suddenly start popping up in their inventory, or if there's
    ANY repeat episode, that's the time to clearly and definitively
    assert your copyright through your legal counsel and, if necessary,
    seek a restraining order against their infringing activities. 

    And if you have even the SLIGHTEST suspicion that the employee is
    acting on their own, CALL THE POLICE. There have been numerous
    "inside jobs" in the jewelry industry that could have been prevented
    that way. 

    Unfortunately, the type of people who stop at nothing to make a buck
    usually do so by ripping off those who work hard and are creative.
    They are also the ones who end up running those hard-working
    businesses out of business, because we're the ones who have to pay
    for our creative time and less-popular pieces, while they simply
    cherry-pick, hire knock-off artists, and produce items using inferior
    workmanship/materials. Their profit margin goes through the roof,
    while the honest artist starves and wonders why. As a community, we
    can't be enablers of that type of business practice because we're
    shooting ourselves in the foot when we do. Our target audience
    frequently doesn't know any better (or why would mall stores still
    be in business and Walmart be the largest retail jeweler in the
    US??!?). So we do have to stand up for ourselves, no matter how
    uncomfortable that might be. 

Karen Goeller
No Limitations Designs
Hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry
www.nolimitations.com
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